Let's see what the bitmap and vector.
Bitmap is the picture, in which each point has its own color image. This is for formats such as BMP. There is a bunch of formats that compress the image before saving it on the algorithm. But actually it does not change. Therefore, the picture quality is always of course - it is limited to this point.Exactly this is the reason that a lot of modern cameras shoved megapixels, all to the final picture was clear and it can be enlarged. The advantages of raster format are obvious - they are easy to edit (do pruning, change colors, change image size, etc., etc.). Almost all the images on the Internet are raster.
Vector image, this image is described by a vector, the vector is a mathematical model and not scale. There is no matter how much you do not enlargee to such an image - the edges will always be smooth and clear. This is the main advantage of the vector. Besides - the file size with a vector image - much lower than in the raster image, but these files are not correct to compare.
So why is it needed to transform from raster to vector? Let's say you create a logo for a great street billboard - the best option distributes in the graphical editor, not everyone has the Corel Draw and ability to use it. So just draw in Paint or where someone used to. Save the resulting file on disk. The next stage is determined with the method of translation into the vector. In short, it is better to use Potrace, but it has a drawback, it carries only the outline, so the image will be black and white. If you need a color transformation - use Autotrace, but the transformation quality will be lower (curves are not so smooth). I would advise to take advantage of the fact and the other method, and then to evaluate the result of their own. For example - moving my application to Autotrace in order to allow users to evaluate the result in color, I immediately received an email from a user request to return back to the black and white conversion, it is completely satisfied. In general, I have it performed.
Choose the method of transfer - move on to converting:
- Go to the converter Potrace or Autotrace, select a picture and click convert. In the case of converting in Autotrace I would recommend not to change the setting (and leave the output format SVG), if you do not understand why they are needed. In any case - you can always experiment!
- Next, save the result to disk.
- The next step, we need to "finish" the resulting vector image. For these purposes - go to the online editor SVG, upload files and make the necessary manipulations.
- After all this, you can increase your image to infinity. It will have perfectly smooth edges. For example, it will be invaluable when printing large banners, try to draw a picture 10000 * 10000 pixels in Paint! But it can be done at a rate of 100 * 100 pixels, and then intelligently enlarge!
- And finally - you may need to restore the image to a bitmap. For these purposes will take another 2 steps:
Good luck in converting!